PA warns of going to ICC if UN bid is rejected

The Palestinian Authority will start proceedings to pursue war crime charges against Israel, if the United Nations Security Council fails to approve a deadline for the Zionist regime to pull out from occupied territories, a Palestinian official says.

The Palestinian UN ambassador, Riyad Mansour, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that the Palestinian government has asked the Security Council "to force Zionist regime to negotiate in good faith the end of occupation within a time frame."

He added that Palestinians expect the council to adopt a draft resolution that leads to the pullout of the Israelis from the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, the besieged Gaza Strip and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), by November 2016.

The United States is reportedly most likely to oppose the move.

He warned that if the Council fails to accomplish this goal, the Palestinian government will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) to pave the way for the Palestinians to sue senior Israeli officials for war crimes against Palestinian people.

"But if this additional door of peace is closed before us, then we will not only join the ICC to seek accountability," Mansour said, adding, "We will join other treaties and agencies" to prove "that we exist as a nation, we exist as a state although the land of our state is under occupation."

He added that if the Security Council shuts the “door to peace”, the Palestinians will keep seeking new doors.

"We will continue to exert all possible efforts to open doors for peace," Mansour said, adding, "If one door is closed, we will not give up. We will look for another door. If the second door is closed, we will look for another one. Our objective is to find a very effective way to end this occupation as quickly as possible to allow for the independence of our state."